Nearly two years ago, the City of Elk Grove began updating its Zoning Code to reflect the City's General Plan.  During the drafting process, the business community was represented by several Chamber members and CEO Janet Toppenberg at workshops and Planning Commission meetings.  Throughout the process, we made suggestions for changes to better protect or enhance business interests.

The draft Code was recently sent from the Planning Commission to the City Council.   At the March 8 City Council Zoning Code Workshop the following comments were made on behalf of the Chamber regarding issues we worked on during the development process:

In Home Businesses – Based on our discussions, the Planning Commission rewrote the section covering in home businesses to be performance based, rather than using arbitrary numbers to control size, number of employees, etc. This is an important gain for this growing jobs sector and business incubators.

Improved Space in M-1/industrial buildings. Supported allowing more than 25% improved space in M-1 to accommodate office efficiency and new technology. (The Planning Commission recommended increasing the amount of office space to 50%, but retained the 25% limit on retail operations.)

Signs – noted that the ordinance would impact all signs for any business in all locations, not just one or just one business, so the blanket prohibition on reader board signs is not appropriate.

The Zoning Code will come before Council probably in April. The most recent draft of the new code can be seen at http://www.egplanning.org/gp_zoning/zoning/comprehensive/update_documents.html   It’s worth looking at as it will impact the entire city in some way or another.